BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced the conviction of CAMERON BUTLER, age 33, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who pled guilty on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge James J. Brady to three counts of receiving stolen government funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.
According to the factual basis presented in connection with his pleas, $107,000 in fraudulent tax refunds were deposited into two of BUTLER’s bank accounts during the course of the underlying scheme. BUTLER obtained these tax refunds knowing that the refunds belonged to other taxpayers and that he was not entitled to them.
BUTLER’s conviction is the latest in a series of convictions related to the theft and use of over 400 social security numbers to file fraudulent tax returns which resulted in over $400,000 in tax refunds. BUTLER’s wife, MONA HILL, was previously convicted in connection with this tax fraud scheme in 2013. She was sentenced to serve sixty-five months in federal prison and to pay $491,268.18 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. TA’SHA THOMAS, age 26, of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, and SHONDA V. JOHNSON, age 42, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were also previously convicted for their roles in an extensive stolen identity refund fraud scheme in 2015. THOMAS and JOHNSON are awaiting sentencing.
U.S. Attorney Green stated: “These cases are another example of a collaborative effort with the IRS to aggressively identify and prosecute criminals who traffic in stolen identities and unlawfully obtain U.S. Treasury funds. We look forward to continuing our work with IRS and other investigative agencies in the fight to eradicate such conduct.”
Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Jerome R. McDuffie, stated: “We are pleased with Mr. Butler’s conviction. Our agency will continue to work with the United States Attorney's Office to aggressively protect innocent taxpayers and preserve the integrity of our tax system. Participation in refund fraud schemes does not pay and those who do so will be prosecuted and held accountable for their illegal activities.”
This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division. This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica M.P. Thornhill.